I feel as though most people would agree that you can do what you want until and unless that starts to affect someone else (outside of your own family circle [and even that is up for debate when it comes to gun safety, drugs, smoking, demonic religious practices, etc...]) We need a working governmental body to say, "hey, you can do this and that where you live, but once it starts to trickle over to where this other family lives, you'll be in trouble." You can smoke all you want, but don't be blowing smoke in my face. Drink (alcohol) all you want, but don't get behind the wheel of a car or else be ready to face consequences. Laws aren't foolproof, but extremely necessary.

(I'd add a section on guns here, I mean I feel like people should be allowed to own and carry firearms for whatever reason be it to be safe just in case or whatever else, that doesn't involving harming others obviously. But you also have to respect my right not want that anywhere near me, especially in public. I don't know if you're a trained marksman exercising his or her 2nd Amendment right or the next crazed lunatic shooter. In fact, I have a lot of liberal friends who frequent shooting ranges and are well trained in firearm use and safety. Hell, the majority of Americans agree on sensible gun law reform. I'd add a section like this here, but people go batshit crazy if you say one bad thing about guns.)

We also hear a lot of negativity about regulations, but a lot of those are in place to protect people from shady business practices and corner cutting that can end up being hazardous to our health. Likewise, regulations can be a thorn in the side of newer businesses before they even get up and running. For that reason, we have to be careful with what we mean when say we want to cut all of these regulations. Are we making life easier for businesses and their employees, or are we making it easier for business owners to mistreat and rip off employees and ship jobs abroad all the while making huge bonuses and getting huge tax breaks at the expense of everyone else? As well as making it easier for industrial type industries to dump their waste byproducts into our drinking water. We have to be aware of what we're actually getting rid of.

Another hot topic is religion. My religion should not infringe on your rights and vice versa, but beyond that we should be (and are) allowed to practice how we deem fit. Again where it doesn't cause harm to others, physical or emotional. Business practices based in religion, those that refuse to serve gay people, those that don't want to provide birth control, are a much more complicated topic because I get both sides of it. Bigotry should never be tolerated of course. Though you can choose to shop elsewhere, and in most cases similar work elsewhere in an environment more cohesive to your wants and needs, picking and choosing who you serve and who you employ is just modern day segregation. Not sure it's necessarily good business practice to turn away well intentioned customers and not want to provide everything they can to make their employees lives easier either. But "forcing" businesses to do something against their beliefs is walking a tightrope as well. At least when it's not an obvious attempt to simply save money at their employees' expense.

So much more can discussed, those are some of the more obvious hot-button issues though. It's only minor differences that people of different political affiliations have with one another. No one likes taxes, but they do serve a purpose. Most would agree that the middle class and poor get constantly shortchanged, even if you hate welfare programs. This divide we have is not a deep as we would think. Though this last election cycle has not helped anything by any means for sure. When we're not chanting about who's racist or who should be in prison, or whatever else, we're generally on similar pages that welcome civilized discussions. It's getting over those differences that we've always struggled with, but when do is when we actually move forward and constructive results begin to manifest.